Trump's pending bankruptcies
26 February 2024
Last November, I suggested that within the next few years, Donald J. Trump will file bankruptcy again, both personally and for his business, because:
He is a terrible businessman and his business skills appear to be getting worse.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for him to get additional financing from reputable sources.
His ongoing civil litigation is likely to require him to pay substantial damages.
Since then, Trump has incurred judgments of $83.3 million in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case on 8 Feb 24 and $454 million in the New York civil fraud case (including interest to date) on 23 Feb 24. He does not appear to have this amount in cash and he likely cannot liquidate his real estate quickly. If Trump does not deposit the amount of the judgments (or more) with the courts or post a bond within 30 days, the plaintiffs can get court orders to garnish Trump’s bank accounts or seize his vehicles, real estate or other assets to satisfy their judgments.
Trump’s conduct in these cases was so juvenile and self-destructive that it likely will further damage his business operations because it does not appear sensible to do business with someone with his track record.
In the E. Jean Carroll trial:
He continued to make the defamatory statements through the course of the trial:
The former president posted more than 40 times in the span of less than an hour Monday morning, attacking Carroll using snippets of interviews Carroll has done with the media, purported Facebook posts from Carroll and original posts from Trump attacking Carroll’s claims about him.
Trump accused Carroll of changing her story about what happened when Trump allegedly raped Carroll in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in the mid 1990s, saying Monday that Carroll “doesn’t know the day, month, season, year, or decade - because it did not happen.”
The former president—who has already been found liable for defamation and sexual assault in a separate lawsuit also brought by Carroll—referred to the second trial as a “witch hunt.” Forbes 22 January 2024
During his deposition, he indicated that E. Jean Carroll “was not my type”, as if this was somehow a credible defense. Then he shrugged, looked at Ms. Kaplan (Ms. Carroll’s attorney) and pointed at her:
“You wouldn’t be a choice of mine either, to be honest with you,” he said, according to a transcript of the deposition. “I would not, under any circumstances, have any interest in you. I’m honest when I say it.” New York Times.
He abruptly walked out on closing arguments of plaintiff’s attorney.
What rational person would act in this way during a civil trial?
In the New York civil trial, he repeatedly engaged in juvenile and self-destructive behavior, prompting Judge Arthur F. Engoron to exclaim:
I beseech you to control him if you can," Judge Arthur Engoron said to Trump's legal team. "If you can't, I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can." People 6 November 2023
"Mr. Kise, please control your client,” Engoron responded to Trump attorney Chris Kise. CNN 11 January 2024
"The English poet Alexander Pope first declared, 'To err is human, to forgive is divine,'" Engoron wrote near the end of his 92-page, single-spaced decision.
"Defendants apparently are of a different mind," the judge continued. "Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological." Reuters 16 February 2024
Thus, the 3 factors cited above are now much worse than they were in November:
Beyond his repeated failures to pay his debts in the past, his history of nonstop litigation suggesting he is a legal terrorist and his lifetime of breaking all the rules, his current emotional state in which he cannot maintain adult behavior makes him an obvious danger to do business with.
The magnitude of these verdicts, as part of a long losing streak in New York Courts, with 4 criminal trials pending, suggests it will be even more difficult for him to get financial support.
In my 40+ years of owning businesses, which includes legal representation of criminals and businesspeople and negotiating with businesses big and small, I have never experienced any clients who even approached Trump’s level of deranged behavior, nor, I assume, have others. There appears to be no valid reason to do business with Trump.
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Excellent, however I do not expect Trump to be tried in any criminal court before the election. He has shown himself to be above the law.